The invention relates to a lighting device, in particular contour lighting for a motor vehicle.
Lighting devices in different types and shapes are known in the art. They are used for both room lighting, but sometimes also for visualization or emphasizing certain items or objects. Such lighting devices are often referred to as contour lighting since they visually highlight the shape or contour of an object to be emphasized. Such contour lighting is used in equipment or machinery, as well as for example also in a motor vehicle, where contour lighting finds particular application, for example, for loudspeakers, buttons and panels, cup holders, etc. These lighting devices are ultimately luminous strips to highlight or emphasize certain contours. Such contour lighting, i.e. strip lighting, is typically realized by using a light guide, which runs along the contour to be highlighted. This light guide can either be viewed directly or installed behind a diffuser mounted in front. Light is coupled into the light guide at an end face, the light exits along the side of the light guide, so that ultimately a linear light strip is visible.
In order not to adversely affect the properties of such a light-conducting element such as an light guide, such an element requires a minimum cross-sectional area of about 7 mm2, wherein a height/width or a diameter should not be less than 2.5 mm. For diffusers, the limiting parameters are the manufacturing and integration in the available space. Today's well-known contour lighting have for this reason a considerable width, i.e. the bright light strip is relatively wide, typically about 2.5 mm or more. However, such a broad light strip is not desirable in some cases, be it for aesthetic reasons, because for example the component to be emphasized is relatively small and such a wide light strip would be quasi oversized, or for structural reasons, because such a wide light stripe can sometimes not always can be integrated.